Disclaimer: I don't
own avatar or the characters...unfortunately. And I'm not making
any money off this…obviously.

OOO

Fire Lord Zuko sat on
his favorite bench near the turtleduck pond, in his favorite garden,
contemplating, as dusk began to settle throughout the land. Though
his golden eyes intensely watched his three children play in the
water and the flowers, his thoughts were a thousand miles elsewhere
and many years in the past. The casual observer would never have
known that though his posture reflected awareness in reality his
clever mind was replaying memories of an adventure he'd never
forget.

As the gentle breeze
ruffled the topknot of his hair and finery of his clothes, Zuko
portrayed the picture of royalty from the golden fire emblem nestled
on his black hair to the shine of his leather boots. Yet, he found
himself missing the days of sleeping in the dirt, bathing in wild
streams, foraging for food and living the life of a peasant.

Normally, he did not
feel this way. After all, he had achieved all he had ever dreamed. He
was Fire Lord. He had a finely bred noblewoman as a wife and three
beautiful prodigies that called him Father. There was peace in the
world that he had helped create. Life was stable.

But on days when the
breeze was willful, and at the time when Agni and Yue shared the sky,
he wished his life different and he replaced, in his mind's eye,
his pale fire nation wife with a beautiful blue-eyed water tribe
girl. His thoughts drifted from memory to memory, character to
character, and he couldn't help but let a small smile play on his
lips as he remembered them each as their own and as their place in
the tight knit group.

It'd been so long
since he had thought of them as labels - the beautiful waterbender,
the powerful airbender, the blind earth girl, the brave warrior –
instead of the people he knew them as; Katara, Aang, Toph and Sokka.

A sharp pain raced
through him as he thought of that last individual and it was so
powerful, he closed his eyes against it.

Despite their initial
differences, Sokka had become his friend, his brother in everything
but birth. They had stood side by side on the day of the black sun
and he remembered the feeling of camaraderie they had shared. Sokka
had slapped his shoulder and given him a wide goofy grin before the
battle commenced, boomerang in hand, bounce in his step.

Zuko would never forget
that day, that moment. He would never forget the vision of Sokka on
the ground, covered in his own blood, taking his dying breaths. He'd
never forget trying to keep the sticky substance inside Sokka's
body with his own two hands while it oozed between his fingers
despite his efforts. He'd never forget the picture of Toph
barreling across the battle field, destroying everything in her path
in her attempt to get to the fallen water tribe warrior.

"Take care of them,"
were Sokka's last words, his fading eyes staring into Zuko's as
his life blood left him. Zuko could only nod, the sadness
constricting his throat, as Sokka departed the living world.

To this day, he could
feel the blood on his hands, could hear Toph's anguished wail, and
could see Katara's shattered look when he had delivered the news.

Sokka was buried in the
North Pole, next to the pond that held his beloved Yue.

Zuko finally opened his
eyes to look toward the moon spirit but stopped short when he found
his oldest child watching him.

"Father, what has
made you sad?" he asked his voice full of concern.

Another time, Zuko had
been asked this question. He had awoken from a vivid dream, shaking.
The memory of Sokka's death so thick it was a second skin. His
dutiful wife had asked the same question as he hid his watering eyes
from her.

He had never answered.
That was his pain to bear. Instead, he'd left the room and stalked
the hallways of his palace until the dawn.

But this time, it was
asked with the grace and innocence of a child. His child.

"I was thinking of
your namesake."

His son settled himself
at Zuko's feet, his golden eyes wide. His father never spoke of
this man before. His father hardly spoke of anything concerning his
time before becoming the Fire Lord, ever.

"Who was he?" he
asked, tentatively. By now his sister and brother were also seated at
their father's feet.

"A friend," Zuko
replied simply.

Friend did not do
justice to the bond he had formed with any of them. But it would have
to do. He would never be able to explain to his children, or his
wife, the deep connection they all had for each other. That the
people he had once hunted became more of a family to him than his own
father.

"What happened to
him, Father?"

"He died in the
Battle of Sozin."

His son's head
drooped and he whispered a quiet, 'oh.' Zuko reached out and
patted the boy's head fondly; something his father had never done
for him. It buoyed the boy's spirit and inquisitiveness.

"Were you there,
Father?"

"Yes."

Zuko had never spoken
to his children about that battle. That fateful day when Aang
defeated Azula and Ozai, the day Iroh became Fire Lord, the day a cry
of joy was heard throughout the nations, the day their grand
adventure was over.

The day the remnants of
their family scattered to the four winds.

Toph went back to the
Earth Kingdom and became a master earthbending teacher. Her
techniques becoming legend. Of them all, she was the one that Zuko
kept the most in touch with. She wrote to him often of events in her
area and had made many trips to the Palace.

She had never married
and Zuko wondered if that part of her life had died with Sokka on the
battlefield.

Aang traveled
constantly disappearing for years on end only to resurface in an
obscure part of the world later. The fight with Ozai had aged him
beyond his years and the fun-loving boy had become a weary, withdrawn
man. He was the last airbender, his people decimated. He was the last
Avatar, the cycle broken.

Then there was Katara.
Zuko felt another pang course through him but it was much different
than the pain Sokka's death caused. His heart ached as he thought
of the lovely waterbender.

Despite his pleadings
for her to stay in the Fire Nation, to be his wife, his friend
forever, she went back to the South Pole. The war had taken her
mother, her brother and had almost taken her father and he would've
been an ever present reminder.

The necklace she
rejected still sat in a pristine wooden box, hidden away in his room.
He longed for the day she'd write to him or visit him, but he
hadn't heard a word from her since the morning she boarded a boat,
broken and drained, and left his shores.

She didn't know that
his heart had gone with her.

Somehow, he had pressed
on. After Iroh had become feeble, Zuko ascended the throne. He
followed his Uncle's example and promoted peace over war,
understanding over conflict and tea over everything else.

For all the sadness,
for all the pain, the time he had spent with them, with his true
family was the happiest he'd ever known. Maybe it was time to let
the aftermath go and only remember them as they were and not who they
became.

"Could you tell us
about the battle, Father?" his son, Sokka, asked, curiousness
outweighing the fear of his father's possible reply.

By that time, Agni had
retired and only Yue lit the sky. The firebugs danced around them in
the night. He lit the torches around the lake with his fingers, the
flames dancing on the water, pulled his daughter into his lap and
leaned forward to his sons as if imparting some great secret.

"Actually, the
beginnings of that battle start two years before. I was on a boat in
the middle of the South Pole and I saw a light…"

fin

OOO

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